The South is not what you think it is - and I guess I'm addressing the Yankees out there, who like me have hardly ever gone below the Mason-Dixon Line (sorry, DC and Florida beaches don't count). We drove from Columbus to Birmingham via Tuscaloosa - all places with vaguely exotic names but with no connection in my mind to the modern place that Alabama is. As we left Mississippi with its historical links to cotton and river trade, we entered the world of Alabama towns built after the Civil War during the Reconstruction period where steel, and later electronics and defense industries, relied on railroads and not rivers for their development.

So with that in mind, you will find Birmingham to be a city that shares a lot in common with mid-west industrial cities, like Cincinnati or Pittsburgh. Birmingham, named for the eponymous city in England, was founded as a steel manufacturing center because it is surrounded by hills full of iron with lots of coal and limestone nearby - geographic attributes that early steel mills in Kentucky did not have. Birmingham was variously known as the Magic City (because it grew so fast in the 19th century) or the Pittsburgh of the South (because of its steel). You will see a large number of stately historic 19th century homes built with steel money on the hills overlooking the city center.

The city has not forgotten its roots and the newly-renovated 57-foot statue of Vulcan, the image that represented the new city in the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, towers over the city. After a post-WWII decline and a rough reputational decline during the Civil Rights movement in the 1950's and 60's, the city has re-emerged as a modern center of diversified industry and business; and now is a vibrant urban center where young people are moving to the city, renovating older residences, opening restaurants and shops. The universities, in particular the medical schools and hospitals associated with the University of Alabama at Birmingham, are world-class.

We were treated to and thoroughly enjoyed the generous hospitality of Evan's sister and her family - introducing us to their beautiful city and surrounding towns, treating us to great food and taking long walks with us and their dogs through the fall landscape.